Category Archives: Law School

How Having a Legal Background Helps and Hurts in Law School

Posted January 18th, 2013
Shon R. Hopwood
I often receive the question of whether 10 years of prior legal experience helps or hurts in law school. I think the answer is both. Having a legal background helps in that the learning curve in year one is not so steep. Because I’m used to reading and analyzing cases, I think, as a general [...]
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My Post At Above The Law About The Similarities Between BigLaw And Jailhouse Law

Posted November 19th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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I forgot to post my humorous, but surprisingly true attempt to compare jailhouse lawyering to working as an associate at a Biglaw firm. The post is over at Above the Law (you can read the post here). I had always wanted to write something for Above the Law because I think they provide a valuable service to [...]
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Pre-Law Students Don’t Understand That Its A Buyers Market For Law Students

Posted September 17th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
Much has been made about the sorry state of legal education. Students are graduating with huge loads of debt and dwindling job prospects. The press has hit this topic so much as of late that the number of LSAT takers has dropped considerably. So, what does that mean for those pre-law students who did take the [...]
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The New York Times Skewers Law Schools, Again!

Posted July 17th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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After the ABA published employment statistics for new law school graduates that were the worst since 1994, the media has started to take notice. On Sunday, the New York Times wrote yet again about the struggling state of law school education. But what about law schools? Not so much. For the most part, law schools are [...]
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The California Bar Wants to Force Law Schools to Provide Practical Skills

Posted May 5th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
The California Bar Association is considering a proposal that would require bar applicants to have taken a practical skills course during law school in order to be admitted to the bar. The Bar Association, however, has received some pushback from two prominent law school deans. Stanford Law Dean Larry Kramer urged caution. And UC Irvine Dean [...]
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167 Law Schools See A Decline In Applicants

Posted April 12th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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The Law School Admission Council recently released a report explaining that 167 law schools have seen a decline in applicants in 2012. That comes as no surprise given the legal job market and the New York Times’ reporting last year on some of the worst aspects of they system. Law Professor Brian Tamanaha over at Balkninzation [...]
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Federalist Society Student Symposium

Posted March 6th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
Over the weekend, I attended the Federalist Society Student Symposium which was held at Stanford Law School. The symposium was entitled, Bureaucracy Unbound: Can Limited Government and the Admistrative State Co-Exist? It was my first time attending a Fed Soc event, and I must say, I was greatly impressed. Not only was the quality of [...]
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A Law and Economics Approach to Deciding Whether Law School Is Worth It

Posted March 1st, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
For those of you considering law school and its accompanying debt, you need to watch this video.
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Effective Cover Letters for Law School Students

Posted February 25th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
Hey fellow law school students, if you are wanting some pointers on how to write an effective cover letter for externships, internships, summer jobs, and the like, then you should check out UCLA Professor Eugene Volokh’s take on what makes an effective cover letter. The blog post is here.
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Legal Education in Crisis?

Posted February 22nd, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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At the New York Times, Professor Stanley Fish discusses the state of legal education. Fish writes: Uneasiness about the state of legal education has been around for some time, but in the wake of the financial meltdown of 2008, uneasiness ripened into a conviction that something was terribly wrong as law school applications declined, thousands of [...]
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